Facile synthesis of AgCI/polydopamine/Ag nanoparticles with in-situ laser improving Raman scattering effect

We reported a simple and fast method to prepare a composite material of polydopamine (PDA) adlayer covered cubic AgCI core, which was inlaid with Ag nanoparticles (NPs), shortly named as AgCI/PDA/AgNPs. The resultant AgCI/PDA/AgNPs could be employed as surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate for in-situ detection and the SERS activity could be further greatly improved due to the production of more AgNPs upon laser irradiation. With 4-mercaptopyridine (4-Mpy) as the probe molecule, the enhancement factor could reach 10(7). Additionally, such SERS substrate shows good reproducibility with relative standard deviation of 7.32% and long term stability (after storage for 100 days under ambient condition, SERS intensity decay is less than 25%). In-situ elevating SERS activity of AgCI/PDA/AgNPs induced by laser may be beneficial to sensitive analysis in practical fields. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.